This proposal is being submitted in response to a Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program announcement which solicited research to "evaluate the effect of advocacy in the development of tobacco control policy." There are two types of advocacy in tobacco control policy making. On one hand, health professionals advocate polices designed to reduce tobacco and promotion. On the other hand, the tobacco industry advocates polices designed to facilitate the manufacturing promotion, and sale of tobacco free of restriction of with public assistance, such as with price support or the use of trade sanction against other countries to open their markets to American tobacco companies. While historically tobacco control policy was primary developed at the federal level, in recent years the focus has shifted to the state and local level. The purpose of the proposed project is to determine the extent and mature of tobacco industry influence on state tobacco policy making. The central hypothesis of this research is that the tobacco industry increases it political activities in a state in response to activities by tobacco control advocates. Beginning with a detailed study of tobacco industry activity in California, which has had a major tobacco control program since 1988, when the public enacted Proposition 99, an initiative which increased the tobacco tax and allocated a portion to a major public education campaign to reduce tobacco use. The results of the California study will be compared to industry activity in the other states (Colorado, Washington, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Jersey) to see if the same patterns of activity as seen in California in response to tobacco control activity in these states. We will answer these questions by collecting detailed data on campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures by the tobacco industry since 1975 (when such data first became available under the California Fair Political Practices Act), and assembling a complete history of California legislative activity related to tobacco. We will also collect similar data from the five other states for comparison. We will also prepare case studies of local tobacco control activities and study the smokers' rights movement. This study will produce several tangible benefits. First, it will increase our knowledge and understanding of the power of groups such as the tobacco industry to influence policy making. Second, it will inform policy makers and tobacco control professional about the specific activities of the tobacco industry to influence the policy making process in this important area of public health and assist health officials in fashioning and implementing better policies to control tobacco use and reduce the associated tobacco-induced diseases.